Hundreds feared dead in French Mayotte cyclone

The French island of Mayette after Cyclone Chido — Chido is the strongest cyclone to hit Mayotte in nearly a century

(Image credit: Kwezi / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

Several hundred people are feared dead on Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, after Cyclone Chido slammed the archipelago over the weekend, Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville said Sunday.

Who said what

"I think there will certainly be several hundreds, maybe we will reach a thousand, even several thousands," of deaths, given the "violence of this event," Bieuville said on a local TV station. French President Emmanuel Macron said his "thoughts" were with "our compatriots in Mayotte."

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Mayotte, with a population of "just over 320,000," is "France's poorest island and the poorest territory in the European Union," The Associated Press said. But it has attracted tens of thousands of undocumented migrants, Reuters said, because it has a "higher standard of living" than Comoros "and access to the French welfare system."

What next?

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was due to travel to Mayotte today as officials scrambled to create an air and sea bridge from Réunion, another French island on the opposite side of Madagascar.

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.